Retrospect Desktop Backup. Need Help!!

[Mt.Everest]

Hi

I know this is kind of off topic but I know alot of you guys use Retrospect as well for backup. I am having MAJOR issues with OSX 10.3.(4-8) and trying to backup my sessions. If anyone can offer any suggestions to weed this problem out, I would really appreciate it. SO:

I have been backing up to DDS-4 thru a Glyph UW SCSI Hotswap drive reliably for about 4 years now. Lately, Retrospect is hanging right when it goes to begin a backup that I selected. I do incremental backup, select a clients folder, and Retrospect SHOULD just be comparing the new stuff, and adding it to the backup tape. Instead, the 'wheels' spin, the progress window says "please wait' and the drive just clicks and whirs like its constantly searching on the tape. And it will do this for days if I let it.

Im pulling my hair out, because no matter what, I cant get it to start (or complete) a backup. The Dantz website offers no help at all for Mac issues. They barely seem to support Mac.

I have the latest client (6.0.04 or something) & the latest driver.
G5, OSX 10.3.8, ATTO SCSI card (the newer one compatible with OSX)
All SCSI IDs are ok, and have not changed since things were working well (4-5 years)

There was a period in there (10.3.2 or so) where the backups were working fine once I created new storage sets for OSX. Since the past few OSX updates, its been hell.
I would love some troubleshooting steps along the lines of the Protools troubleshooting (equivalents of trashing DAE prefs, Digi Database file, etc). Ive done the basics as far as repairing permissions, re-seating cables, etc.

Anyone out there a Retrospect pro!?
thanks
MT

[Eric Seaberg]

How much stuff are you backing up and how old is your tape drive? Have you considered having your tape drive cleaned? It is, afterall, a tiny little VCR.

[Jeff Bova]

After years of no problems it was Version 6 that was giving me trouble with it hanging, but not till it verified or I tried an incremental backup.

I called support ..... paid the fee. They pointed out that in version 6 the default setup for a new tape set is with hardware compression. This option only comes up when you create the new set. I hadn't noticed that when I created new backup sets. They had me try it without compression and retrospect has backed up fine since. Don't know if it applies to your tape format but you might check that. Unfortunately I had to erase my tapes(Quick Erase) and re-backup everything from scratch but at least now it works.

I am using Retrospect 6.0.204 with AIT tape, no hardware compression.

Good Luck,

Jeff

[Lee Blaske]

I used to use Retrospect, and I had trouble sleeping at night. In my mind, using Retrospect is simply a disaster waiting to happen. On top of that, tape drives are also worrisome (I had a hellish experience with an Exabyte drive that was out of calibration. It worked fine, but tapes recorded on it would not play in other drives. I only found that out after the drive failed). I now keep anything important on CDs or DVDs, backing up important stuff on multiple brands (so I avoid the possibility of a bad batch).

I'd suggest that you rescue as much data as possible from Retrospect, and then put it on a shelf. The idea of Retrospect and tape drives is elegant, but it's something that's sure to cause problems over the long haul. At some point, you're definitely going to have data in a non-supported, obsolete and/or archaic format.

Lee Blaske

[Mt.Everest]

Thanks for the help.

However, DVD backup really isnt a possibility for my situation. I need some kind of incremental style backup. I know you can USE DVDs for this purpose with Retrospect, but each client (20+) have at least 40 gigs each that they are constantly working on, recalling, updating, removing, etc. I need the large capacity, but small physical size that come with tape-style backup, so half the small studio doesnt fill up with media.

Also, I have turned off hardware compression since making any new backups since upgrading to OSX a year ago. So I dont think thats the problem. I also do clean the drive when it prompts me to.

The odd thing is that SOME storage sets backup ok on SOME drives. Problem is that I cant find the 'magic path' yet. I cant figure out why it works sometimes and not others. I have tried backing up from the internal drive, the audio drives (SCSI) , and the FW drives, but nothing is consistent.
I just cant figure out WHY Retrospect goes to search the tape for where to begin the backup, but then gets caught up in this loop where it just rewinds, forwards, sleeps, the tape, but never gets past the "Please Wait' stage. arrhg.. I gotta figure something out here..
Not to mention that force-quitting Retrospect always f**Ks up the storage set synching, as well as causes the Black-Curtain-Of-Death if I dont restart right after quitting. This is a severely time consuming troubleshoot cuz for each test it takes a while to wait and see what happens and if it freezes up, I have to restart ala OS9 days...

MT

[Eric Seaberg]

We've been running Retrospect every night for the last year with NO PROBLEMS! It backs up our 4TB LanShare and 4 PTHD systems to LTO tapes. We never have to look at the system UNLESS someone changed their network settings on the machine or we need another tape. Even the tape drives request and load a cleaning tape automatically when needed. IT WORKS FOR US!

[Mt.Everest]

We've been running Retrospect every night for the last year with NO PROBLEMS! It backs up our 4TB LanShare and 4 PTHD systems to LTO tapes. We never have to look at the system UNLESS someone changed their network settings on the machine or we need another tape. Even the tape drives request and load a cleaning tape automatically when needed. IT WORKS FOR US!

Please, if you dont mind, can you list your stats? i.e. version of retrospect, version of driver, OSX version, SCSI type, etc, etc,.. as much info as you can give. Id appreciate it! thanks!

MT

[Eric Seaberg]

Unfortunately, we're running Retrospect on Windows XP but it works flawlessly. Ultra 3 SCSI connected from the Windows server to LTO tape robot (22 200MB tapes uncompressed w/ 2 tape drives). From there, everything talks to the LanShare and PTHD machines via Gigabit connection. Since it's an automated run at night, we don't really care about the transfer speeds, although we are consistantly getting an average of 900MB per minute INCLUDING verification.

Retrospect Client, obviously, needs to be on each networked machine for the server to see it.


With the cost of a cheap Windows desktop, even if you used a KVM switch, this may be a viable alternative for some of you. When I get to the studio tomorrow I'll verify version numbers of everything, but I'm thinking the server is v6 and they just came out with v7 for Windows.

By the way, since we ARE backing up to FAT32 formatted drives, you MUST make sure all file extensions are written correctly, otherwise the Windows platform won't know your .pts files from your .aif files. Other than that, restoration is a breeze and can be done in the background while you're working!

[Lee Blaske]

However, DVD backup really isnt a possibility for my situation. I need some kind of incremental style backup. I know you can USE DVDs for this purpose with Retrospect, but each client (20+) have at least 40 gigs each that they are constantly working on, recalling, updating, removing, etc. I need the large capacity, but small physical size that come with tape-style backup, so half the small studio doesnt fill up with media.

Use redundant removable drives to incrementally back things up for works in progress, then burn to DVD when a project is complete. Are you actually relying on Retrospect with a single tape drive as your sole back-up?

Lee Blaske

[Will Russell]

Hi,

Have you tried calling Glyph tech support to see if they have any ideas? They are helpful and knowledgeable.

Also, I want to say that we have been using Retrospect with a scsi AIT drive for years and knock on wood we have had no problems that were not "user error" other than one piece of bad media, which Retrospect regognized immediately and reported. Don't fear Retrospect, it is quite reliable.